Of fact, fiction, and feelings

An unethical, unscientific and illegal trial on brain dead patients claims it will try to “get dead men walking”. An editorial in this issue expresses outrage that this case, which reads like bad science fiction, hasn’t evoked a strong response from our regulatory agencies. Across the world, the failure of a medical journal and a regulatory authority to maintain a distance from the corporates and act as gatekeepers upholding ethics in medicine is revealed in a comment and a book review. None of this is conducive to an improvement in healthcare anywhere in the world. But the only weapon available to those struggling for better healthcare access to all is unflagging exposure and protest.

This issue also focuses on the vital importance of the personal element and its value in the teaching/learning experience. One study gauges what patients and their relatives find lacking in their interaction with doctors, and another explores the disappointments of unsung doctors struggling to provide primary healthcare in rural areas. A story describes the sheer deprivation which drives the poor to submit themselves as subjects of clinical trials. In addition to all this, we have a case study on the rights of children, and a discussion on why organ donation should not be paid for.

Cover credit: "Bonnet Macaque Mother and Child". Copyright - Dr Sameer Rao. No reproduction in any form without written permission.